Tomorrow, our leaders will honor our right to make reproductive healthcare decisions. 

Tomorrow, leaders won’t create outrage over every little thing to raise a campaign dollar.

Tomorrow, our kids will feel safe in the park and in their schools.

Tomorrow, Idaho will reduce our role in changing the world’s climate.

Tomorrow, businesses will love Idaho because we are welcoming and kind.

Tomorrow, freedom won’t just be words on a flag flown in the back of a pickup truck.

Tomorrow, our leaders will understand that serving the people is a sacred trust.

Tomorrow, our leaders will debate the best way to accomplish our dreams.

Tomorrow, the light of liberty will dispel the darkness we may see today.

What tomorrow looks like is decided by who shows up to the ballot box today.

Your vote matters Nov. 8.

The post Tomorrow Needs You Today appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

Always leave your campsite better than you found it.

That simple Idaho value is why I am running for Lieutenant Governor. 

The belief that “we must leave the world a better place” made Idaho prosper. It’s what built the legacy of clean, wide open spaces and the promise of freedom. 

Previous generations built roads and bridges for people they would never live to meet. They created city halls and police and fire departments. They dug water and sewer systems. They enshrined public education in the Idaho Constitution:

“… it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform, and thorough system of public, free common schools.”

That selfless and wise vision certainly helped me.

Despite my humble background, I now run a successful small business that I founded. My legal skills are helping me fight to regain the right for women to make our own medical decisions–such as choosing live-saving abortions–that Idaho GOP politicians have revoked. I advocate for children. I stand up for LGBTQ kids. 

Today, Idahoans are threatened by a selfish, mean-spirited kind of extremism. And, these extremists have flourished under my opponent House Speaker Scott Bedke.

Mr. Bedke allowed extremists to try to quell science-based teaching in K-12 schools as well as universities. He let them pass a law to criminalize librarians. He let them scapegoat the most powerless population in the world: transgender kids. He let them bully our underpaid teachers too.

Under Speaker Bedke’s watch–Idaho politicians made Idaho worse. 

I love Idaho. I love this whole beautiful state. If we return to this value, we can save Idaho from the corrosive work of extremists and self-serving politicians like Mr. Bedke.

Please join me. Let’s make Idaho a better place than we found it.

The post New Idaho Value: Leave It Worse Than You Found It? appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

You are hiking Idaho’s backcountry. Butterflies flit. Birds chirp. Marmots whistle. 

And deer flag their tails. After a morning of hiking, sunshine bathes your face, mountain air fills your lungs, and a frigid lake soothes your feet: Idaho bliss.

A cell phone ringtone shatters the stillness.

In this fantasy, Idaho’s leaders aren’t 20 years late getting cell service to rural areas.

You answer. 

A grandfatherly voice on the line has called with a dire warning!

“Hello, I am warning you that your public lands are worthless unless you sell them—today. The forests are just bonfires. The deserts are government staging grounds. The sky is falling! We can save everything by selling—today! Act now! If you don’t sell your public lands—today!—you will lose your job, your house, and probably your children.”

The voice on the phone is my opponent, House Speaker Scott Bedke.

Oh, I know, I know, he seems like a solicitous grandfather. Don’t be fooled. Mr. Bedke is no different than any scammer who preys upon the elderly to make himself richer. His record on public lands proves it.

Take a moment to remember back to 2006. That year, former U.S. Rep. Butch Otter nearly lost his gubernatorial campaign when he proposed selling Idaho public lands to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Butch hit a buzz saw of opposition, so he backed off. Mr. Bedke took note, learning that he couldn’t get elected if he told the truth about his scheme to sell Idaho public lands.

Finally, by 2013, Mr. Bedke and his cronies hatched a new scheme. They started preaching that the U.S. government was legally obliged to give public lands to states. He downplayed the fact that Idaho couldn’t afford basic management costs of public lands. For example, the federal government paid $230 million–in Idaho–to fight one year’s forest fires.

Bedke’s scam went like this:

1) Transfer federally managed lands to state ownership.

2) Go broke fighting fires.

3) Sell the lands to wealthy cronies to pay for firefighting costs.

If Mr. Bedke called our elderly parents to sell that idea, we would say he was a scammer, or a grifter, or a con artist. Since he’s in the Idaho House, surrounded by extremists who he has cultivated, we call him Speaker of the House.

Idaho truly needs leaders who aren’t there to scam us. We need leaders who will protect our priceless public lands from the Mr. Bedke’s of the world.

I am tough, I am fair, and I am honest. I am stepping up to be the leader Idaho needs.

The post The Speaker’s Scam to Steal Public Land appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

I am running against a pervasive sense of entitlement that settled over Idaho government like a toxic fog. The politicians in the supermajority have become completely disconnected to regular Idaho people.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Idaho political leaders have become too extreme.

I am the only candidate who will oppose laws that limit our freedom.

I will never hide my decision-making behind closed-door committee rooms.

I will never refuse to share the public’s records with the public.

I will be a tireless advocate for public education.

I will stand up for librarians, kids, parents, and local decision-makers.

I will stand up for the rights of women to make personal reproductive medical decisions.

I will work to make Idaho’s economy give everyone a chance to succeed.

I will not support tax cuts for corporations that raise taxes for homeowners.

I will not let public lands be sold off.

I will not coddle militias and white nationalists.

I will stop the chaos that is so bad for business.

I will not let bullies push us around.

I will be honest, straight-talking and true.

I understand Idaho. I choose to live here and I’ve chosen to raise my children here. I have built my own successful business. I pay attention to the issues that matter to regular people. I always strive to make decisions that benefit us all.

We need to make a difference. Now. 

Please vote for me on Tuesday, May 17.

The post I am the only candidate who will fight for you appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

On my campaign swing through Latah, Nez Perce, and Idaho counties, I heard a version of the same question again and again: why do Republican leaders want to make it harder for Idaho families?

This week, top GOP politicians proposed hiking the sales tax by 33 percent to 8 cents. Tack that onto historically high inflation and you get a bad idea that no regular Idahoan would have lobbied for.

Seriously. Why? Who wants that? Homeowners want tax relief, but not like that.

Folks wonder why on earth aren’t the politicians investing in our kids. Most parents agree that early learning is a big boost for kids. Most parents agree that if a school building needs fixed, then it should get fixed. All parents understand that politicians are the last people who should decide what kids learn. 

But Republican leaders in Boise decided to short schoolkids and give big dollars to big businesses instead. Well, in rural Idaho, anytime a school-roof springs a leak, the droplets splashing onto a kid’s desk represent what “trickle down” economics means to them. 

And by the way, the most unpopular political opinion around northern Idaho doesn’t come from Washington, D.C. It comes from one of my opponents for this job, House Speaker Scott Bedke. He has dedicated his public life to trying to sell our public lands.

People up here value hunting, fishing, hiking, ATVing, you name it. It’s where we play, and work, and teach our kids to be tough and self-sufficient. The other trait that Speaker Bedke lacks is the political courage to talk straight. If he ever did, he’d know that people love public lands.

I’d be remiss not to mention that this is part of the state where my other opponent, Rep. Priscilla Giddings lives. But she has hitched her wagon to former Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who has made a mockery–literally–of her time in this position. People have seen that Giddings’ extremist views are likely to translate into an extremist kind of leadership that ignores the citizens of Idaho for the sake of splashy headlines and breathless fundraising appeals.

This part of the state is diverse: Moscow is a busy university town, Lewiston is a manufacturing center, and the growing community of Grangeville is a gateway to vast public lands. 

For their own reasons, hyper-partisan politicians will tell you that these neighbors are incapable of agreeing. That’s nonsense. I can tell you that they all want safe communities, well-built roads and bridges, good education for their kids, and they all want the government to stay out of their personal business. 

You know what else they agree on? 

They want politicians to stop making life harder. They want extremists out of government. And, I can tell you that I spoke with Independents, Democrats, and Republicans who say they are voting for me.

The post North Central Idaho: Why are politicians making life harder? appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

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